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Follow along with our team of quilters as we show off our new projects, discuss new and exciting techniques, talk about new fabric collections, and share news about the latest and greatest happenings here at Connecting Threads.

When we started talking about the idea of Plethora of Pillows, I immediately knew what I wanted to do! I love the focal fabric from the Isle of Enchantment collection, especially the orange version.

I love it so much that I had a printed version of it tacked to my wall, just waiting for it to become a fabric reality. Fabric, check! After a quick search of our site, I found the How to Sew Throw Pillow Covers tutorial which is a great pattern to use with a large focal. Pattern, check! I decided to do the square version with a flange rather than the round with a zipper. I know, I know I’m a chicken. I will get around to trying a zipper one day – but not today!

Here is the finished product, not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Here is how I got from fabric to pillow:

First I cut my pieces, this tutorial has an envelope-style enclosure so I had two backing pieces and one front piece.

Next came ironing the hems so that the back enclosure has finished edges. Here is where I was wishing I had bought the Hot Hemmer. I could have waited a day and borrowed the one from work, but instead, as usual, I was impatient and scoured my sewing room for something to make do. I used a bias bar that measured 1/4″ for the first fold, then a 1/2″ for the second fold before sewing them down. The idea worked as far as getting my hem the right size, but I burnt my fingers several times when moving the hot metal bias bar!

From here you line up the overlapped backing pieces onto the front piece, wrong sides together, sew the layers together, and trim off the corners.

Turn your pillow right side out to iron the edges. Here is where the Iron Finger would have come in handy! Refer back to said impatience and more burnt fingers but I did end up with nice seams. 🙂

On to the final steps:

I traced a 19″ square inside of the pillow using my white Chaco Liner. This line needs to be erasable,; it’s where you are going to sew in order to make the flange. I decided to match my thread to my backing fabric because I wanted it to show a little on the front after I was done. I also traced my line on the back of my pillow because I thought I would be able to see the line easier on that fabric.

Watch out, these are so easy and fast you will be eying all your focal fabrics in your stash, then pretty soon your family will be complaining they can’t see the couch and the beds because there are so many pillows!